Comic for Friday, Feb 11, 2022

[mlooney 3,417]

Here is.

I'm amused that Kevin warns Ashley to smoke and drink in moderation.  It shows that Kevin was really made for adults.

[ijuin 572]

Back when Arthur was making Kevin (probably 1970s-80s), the legal ages for drinking and smoking were still 18 in many states rather than 21. Ashley is 18, so therefore old enough that she might be doing those things according to that standard. Do note that Ashley’s friend Liz is a smoker.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

7 hours ago, mlooney said:

Here is.

I'm amused that Kevin warns Ashley to smoke and drink in moderation.  It shows that Kevin was really made for adults.

There are two ways to read his statement. I'm going with "Get enough sleep and booze. And smoke in moderation." Note also, 'booze' - generally meaning harder liquor, not beer or wine. Conclusion: magic is fueled by alcohol.

Kevin is less specific about smoke. Smoke a substance, and which? Any? Or might he be referring to smoke coming from her body, as Morticia Addams did? Perhaps a result of the alcohol fuel? As they say, if you smoke after sex, you should probably use more lubricant.

Carbs are less of a problem. I haven't had a carb in an awfully long time, five vehicles ago. With electric cars on the horizon, I doubt that carbs will be an issue, unless he is referring to small engines, such as lawn mowers and weed whackers.

On a more serious note, I suppose it is no surprise that Kevin struggles with temporal concepts, is it?

I'll give him points for being more useful than he seemed previously. He's giving sound advice, it appears.

Ashley seems less than happy being trained by him, though. I suppose he'd wear on you.

[mlooney 3,417]

1 hour ago, Darth Fluffy said:

There are two ways to read his statement. I'm going with "Get enough sleep and booze. And smoke in moderation."

Depends on what the mark after "get enough sleep" is.  If it's a comma, yeah, your interpretation is may be correct.  How ever there is no mark before smoke, part of your interpretation is a bit tricky to support.  If The Dan used a font that had separate upper and lower case letters this would be more obvious one way or the other. 

[ChronosCat 155]

9 hours ago, mlooney said:

I'm amused that Kevin warns Ashley to smoke and drink in moderation.  It shows that Kevin was really made for adults.

To me, the idea that smoking is something he'd expect his pupil to be doing at all (and that moderation is good enough) shows that Kevin is rather behind the times (and not just when it comes to nutrition guidelines). Sure, people still smoke, but it's no longer treated as something the average person is likely to do.

[ijuin 572]

Yeah, Arthur was making Kevin probably 30-50 years before the comic’s “present day” (I estimate Arthur as being in his 70s, since he had retired several years ago and has an adult granddaughter). Kevin’s programming thus likely reflects what Arthur expected from a Baby Boomer at the time.

[mlooney 3,417]

1 hour ago, ChronosCat said:

To me, the idea that smoking is something he'd expect his pupil to be doing at all (and that moderation is good enough) shows that Kevin is rather behind the times (and not just when it comes to nutrition guidelines). Sure, people still smoke, but it's no longer treated as something the average person is likely to do.

Well, it's been postulated that Kevin is from the 70's.  When I went to high school, there were designated smoking areas for students.  However there weren't booze drinking areas for teenagers any where.  Of course the drinking age was 18 in some states, so it's possible that Kevin was just used to that sort of environment.  I had forgotten that he's older than "right now" and may be a throwback to the days of my youth. 

[mlooney 3,417]

5 minutes ago, ijuin said:

I estimate Arthur as being in his 70s, since he had retired several years ago and has an adult granddaughter

Jay is still in high school, so she's not really an adult, even if she is legally.  Arthur could be in his 60's assuming that the mothers were in their 20's when they had their daughters.  Actually we don't know that Jay is from his daughter or from an unmentioned son.  Given that he's mentioned his daughter it's likely that Jay is her daughter, but there is no canon evidence either way.

[ijuin 572]

If Jay were the daughter of Arthur’s son, then she would probably have his surname, and Dan tends to make it clear when a character has both a first and last name known.

[mlooney 3,417]

Well, yes and no.  It was quite a while before we got Sarah's last name.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Kevin was very specific that he did not need to be present for Ashley's practice between their weekly training sessions

Does he need that much down time?

Does he want to see if Ashley will follow his directions without him being present?

Does he realize that he can be intense and annoying so wants to keep his time with a beginning student to a minimum?  After all, you don't have Pete Rose manage your Little League team.  Ashley is significantly less powerful than the magic students Arthur anticipated Kevin would train so she is simply not ready for the full Kevin experience.

 

[mlooney 3,417]

2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Kevin was very specific that he did not need to be present for Ashley's practice between their weekly training sessions

Does he need that much down time?

Well, he did say "with out waking me", so it's possible he need a week to recharge.